Photograph
by Moira.Shipper
Summary: After Logan, a continuation of 'Unsteady', showing Moira's thoughts.


**Author:** MoiraShipper

 **Summary:** After Logan, a continuation of 'Unsteady', showing Moira's thoughts.

 **Unashamedly a mix of 'Me before You', and the 'Fault is in our stars'. You didn't think 'Unsteady' was the end, right?**

 **Photograph**

 _We keep this love in a photograph_

 _We made these memories for ourselves_

 _Where our eyes are never closing_

 _Hearts are never broken_

 _And time's forever frozen still_

 **Photograph-Ed Sheeran**

Charles Xavier, the great love of her life had died more than a week ago. It was hard to know she wouldn't hear his voice in her head, feel his gentle fingers on her face and hear him say he loved her.

Moira smiled sadly, getting out of the car with her son Kevin, who watched her see the ruins of the Xavier Mansion that had once been home to many mutant students and Moira herself when she had been with Charles. Kevin knew how much she had been suffered with the absence of the mutant and so he put a hand on her shoulder and she smiled before walking toward the still intact gates.

They had been happy for 2 decades together, before the War against the Mutants had began, and Charles had to close the doors of the school and send the students to scattered shelters, hoping to keep them safe, since many mutants had already died.

Despite his protests, the retired CIA agent had stayed by his side, but shortly afterwards he had begun to lose control of his powers and moved away with Logan to protect her, no matter how much she had asked him to stay. But the sadness and love in his blue eyes had made her accept the decision and it hadn't matter that they had been apart for the last 10 years, on Valentine's Day he would always send her cards, making her smile.

Moira took a deep breath, walking through the gardens which, although abandoned ten years ago, in the wild bush there were beautiful flowers and she walked to a huge tree that she and Charles had planted 20 years ago, removing a piece of paper already crumpled from her pocket.

On the last card he had sent her, a week ago, he had sent the paper along, asking her to go there and dig under the tree, and curiosity was pinching her.

"Oh Charles, what did you do, my love?"

"Here's the shovel, mom." Kevin said and then he started digging in front ofnthe tree and reached a wooden box and he handed it to his mother.

"Thank you dear."

Her hands opened the box carefully and when she saw the photos inside, she had to sit on the grass, closing her eyes that were shining, for a moment.

"Mom?"

"It's okay..."

The woman then opened her eyes, smiling excitedly. The photos inside there were from the last 30 years, the moments between the couple. He had taken all the photos that showed him with her 10 years ago, afraid that they would come after Moira and Kevin to see that she was with him.

For the last ten years Moira had been afraid to forget the details of Charles's face, his image had lived only in her memories for the last 10 years, but there they were and Moira laughed, seeing them.

There were photos from 50 years ago when they had formed the X-mens and she was in the photo between Charles and Erik, with Raven, Hank, Alex and Sean together, a picture of the two in Charles's room, drinking champagne and Moira traced Charles's face on the photo, over his beautiful smile, his curly, charming hair and staring into the blue eyes that even on the plastic, seemed to be able to read her.

There were photos taken after the Apocalypse, the happy couple in the Mansion with friends, pictures of them on walks, happy and romantic moments that Moira would carry with her until she saw Charles again, because as she had told him, their love story, of a mutant and a human was epic and wouldn't end, because it would die with them and become immortal for both.

"Kevin, take this..." She handed him a picture of her son when he had been 12 years old with Charles at a baseball stadium and the man smiled wistfully.

Although Charles wasn't his father, since the age of 10 the man's presence had been constant in his life, not only helping him deal with his mutation, but being a father.

Moira put the bundle of pictures on her lap to place them in her purse and saw that one of the photos was had a letter attached and she frowned, picking it up.

"Oh, Charles..." She murmured, excited.

The picture was from 50 years ago, when the X-men had been formed and in it, Moira was dressed in a black sweater with skirt and boots, her auburn hair falling over her shoulders and she smiled under the same place she was now, where used to have another tree and Charles had taken the picture when they hadn't yet gotten involved and even after together, he had never told her what he had done with the photo. She then opened the letter and her eyes widened. It was a letter from Charles from a week ago!

 _My dear Moira, I write this letter in one of my moments of lucidity. All I can tell you is that we're running away with Logan's daughter, Laura, but right now, I want to talk about 'us'. Moira, I will never forget the first time I saw you at that bar, so beautiful and so full concentrated, and it was there that I had decided that I wanted to stop flirting and have you by my side, so many times you went against your superiors for our cause and stayed by my side and even after Cuba and the Apocalypse, with my brutal mistakes, you forgive me and gave me 20 wonderful years by your side and Kevin and I hope I made you happy, at least half of what you did to me. My love, even in these last 10 years apart because of my powers, you kept me company, not only in my memories, because I couldn't trust them 100%, but in that photo I took of you, decades ago. But now I need to trust my memories because I ended up losing the photo in the hiding place when we left and I wish I had stayed with it until the end, because it was a piece of you, who I know is my soul mate. Live to its full Moira and then I can breathe in relief, because few had the opportunity to live such an epic and beautiful story of a mutant and a human, and this love story will continue in you, as the story of the wonderful Moira Magtaggert in every moment that you live. I love you, ok?_

"Ok." Moira whispered, with tears of emotion, running her hand through her auburn hair that showed gray threads.

Kevin watched her mother and left to give her privacy and Moira put her picture on top of the other with the letter and hugged them tightly, letting the tears run down. How she loved that wonderful man, who had made her this surprise.

She then stood up, approaching the tree and leaning her back there, as she had done in the photo, and Charles had approached after taking it, holding a strand of her hair. She closed her eyes remembering the moment.

 _"I say MCR-one gene and you would say auburn hair. It's a mutation. It's a very groovy mutation, my dear..."_

He had repeated the words from the first time they had seen each other and the current Moira laughed, feeling her heart fill with love and her face blush as she opened her bright eyes. She was going to do what he said, also search for Logan and Laura because something was telling hdr that one of them had retrieved the picture for him.

"And mutation, right, took us from single-called organisms to the dominant form." Moira laughed, looking at the landscape around her and then said decisively: "I will live to its full, my love."


End file.
